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Kennedy family

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Kennedy
File:Kennedy Arms.png
Current regionNew England, United States
Place of originUnited States
MembersJoseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
John F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Edward M. Kennedy
Connected familiesAuchincloss
Bouvier
Cavendish
Fitzgerald
Murphy Onassis
Radziwiłł
Schwarzenegger
Shriver
Skakel
Smith
et al.
Estate(s)Kennedy Compound, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, United States
For other uses, see Kennedy

In the United States, the phrase Kennedy family commonly refers to the family descending from the marriage of the Irish-Americans Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald that is prominent in American politics and government. Their political involvement has revolved around the Democratic Party. Harvard University educations have been common among them, and they have contributed heavily to that university's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The wealth, glamor, and photogenic quality of the family members, as well as their extensive and continuing commitment to public service, has elevated them to iconic status over the past half-century.

With the 1960 election of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, he and his two then-surviving brothers, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, all held prominent positions in the federal government, and received intensive publicity, often emphasizing their youth (relative to comparably influential politicians), allure, education and collective future in politics.

The family has suffered a series of tragedies, sometimes called "the Kennedy curse"; it has included:

It has also included at least two sets of allegations against individual family members and their relatives by marriage, including:

Most recently, U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother of the Kennedy family, died on August 25, 2009, at age 77, after battling brain cancer. He is the only male offspring of Joseph and Rose Kennedy to die of natural causes.

Family tree

See also: List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Kennedy family political line

[needs update] Template:Kennedy family tree


First generation

The family patriarch was Patrick J. Kennedy (1858–1929), a first-generation American who married Mary Augusta Hickey. He was a politician involved in the local Democratic Party.

Second generation

In 1914, their son, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969) married Rose Fitzgerald (1890–1995), the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald. Joe Sr. served as the first Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom in the years leading up to World War II.

Third generation

The Irish Catholic political dynasty, John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy, July 1960.

Together Rose and Joe Sr. had nine children:

Third generation in-laws

Fourth generation

  • Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. neither married nor had children.
  • Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy neither married nor had children.
  • Kathleen Agnes Kennedy and William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington had no children.
  • Jean Ann Kennedy and Stephen Edward Smith, Sr. had four children:
    1. Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. (b. 1957)
    2. William Kennedy Smith (b. 1960) — 1991 rape acquittal, a physician and activist against land mines. He has neither married nor had children.
    3. Amanda Mary Smith (b. 1965) — adopted. Married (Harmon) Carter Hood; has two children.
    4. Kym Maria Smith (b. 1972) — adopted. Divorced from Alfie Tucker.
(Edward "Ted" Moore Kennedy had two stepchildren from his marriage to Victoria Anne Reggie — Curran Raclin (b. 1982) and Caroline Raclin (b. 1985).


Armorial bearings

On Saint Patrick’s Day 1961, the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland granted armorial bearings to the descendants of Patrick Kennedy. According to the rules of heraldic inheritance (see primogeniture) the armiger, or heraldic "head of the family", has been:

  1. Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858)
  2. Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy (1858–1929)
  3. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969)
  4. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (1960–1999)
  5. Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (b. 1952)

The heir apparent is Matthew Rauch Kennedy (b. 1980).

See also

References

  1. ^ http://americanheraldry.org/pages/index.php?n=President.Kennedy
  2. ^ Spoto, Donald (2000). Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life. Macmillan. p. 136. ISBN 0312977077.